Inputting Tone and Diacritic Marks by Gesture

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for inputting tone and diacritic marks by gesture are provided. A method may include displaying a keypad for text input. Selection of a key and a gesture may be received. The gesture input may be semantically linked to a phonological property, a diacritic property, and/or a tone. A gesture input may include a substantially horizontal movement to the right associated with a first tone, a movement up and to the right associated with a second tone, a movement down and to the right, then up and to the right associated with a third tone, and a movement down and to the right associated with a fourth tone. A grapheme may be displayed based upon the selected key and the received gesture. With the diacritic and/or tone information, a grapheme may be predicted which may help to reduce the effort and speed of input.

BACKGROUND

In general, some spoken and written languages can include the use oftones and diacritic marks to convey meaning and significance tocharacters, letters, words, phrases, and the like. In many instances,the use of tones and diacritical marks can significantly alter themeaning of a character, letter, word, or phrase in a language. However,the input of tones and diacritical marks when typing on a device, suchas a touch screen device, can be difficult due to various factors. Someof these factors may include, for example, the small size of a touchscreen, limited keyboard functions, and lack of intuitive inputtechniques that a user can easily remember.

BRIEF SUMMARY

According to an embodiment of the disclosed subject matter, a methodincludes displaying a keypad for text input, the keypad including aplurality of keys. Input indicating a selection of a key from theplurality of keys may be received. Next, a gesture input may bereceived, wherein the gesture input is associated with one gesture of aset of gestures, each gesture in the set being semantically linked to atleast one property such as a phonological property and/or a diacriticproperty. As a result, a grapheme may be displayed based upon theselected key and the at least one property semantically linked to thereceived gesture.

An implementation of the disclosed subject matter provides a systemincluding a processor configured to display a keypad for text input, thekeypad including a plurality of keys. Input indicating a selection of akey from the plurality of keys may be received. A gesture input may bereceived, wherein the gesture input is associated with one gesture outof a set of gestures, each gesture in the set being semantically linkedto at least one property selected from: a phonological property and adiacritic property. Next, a grapheme may be displayed based upon theselected key and at least one of the phonological property and thediacritic property semantically linked to the received gesture.

According to an implementation of the disclosed subject matter, a methodmay include displaying a keypad for text input, the keypad including aplurality of keys. Input may be received indicating a selection of a keyfrom the plurality of keys. A gesture input may be received, wherein thegesture input is associated with one gesture of a set of gestures, eachgesture in the set being semantically linked to a tone. The set ofgestures may include a substantially horizontal movement associated witha first tone, a movement both horizontal and vertical in a firstdirection associated with a second tone, a movement both horizontal andvertical in a second direction, then a movement both horizontal andvertical in a third direction associated with a third tone, and amovement both horizontal and vertical in a fourth direction associatedwith a fourth tone. Next, a grapheme may be displayed based upon theselected key and the tone associated with the received gesture.

An implementation of the disclosed subject matter provides a systemincluding a processor configured to display a keypad for text input, thekeypad including a plurality of keys. Input may be received indicating aselection of a key from the plurality of keys. A gesture input may bereceived, wherein the gesture input is associated with one gesture outof a set of gestures, each gesture in the set being semantically linkedto a tone. The set of gestures may include a substantially horizontalmovement associated with a first tone, a movement both horizontal andvertical in a first direction associated with a second tone, a movementboth horizontal and vertical in a second direction, then a movement bothhorizontal and vertical in a third direction associated with a thirdtone, and a movement both horizontal and vertical in a fourth directionassociated with a fourth tone. A grapheme may be displayed based uponthe selected key and the tone associated with the received gesture.

Additional features, advantages, and embodiments of the disclosedsubject matter may be set forth or apparent from consideration of thefollowing detailed description, drawings, and claims. Moreover, it is tobe understood that both the foregoing summary and the following detaileddescription are examples and are intended to provide further explanationwithout limiting the scope of the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the disclosed subject matter, are incorporated in andconstitute a part of this specification. The drawings also illustrateembodiments of the disclosed subject matter and together with thedetailed description serve to explain the principles of embodiments ofthe disclosed subject matter. No attempt is made to show structuraldetails in more detail than may be necessary for a fundamentalunderstanding of the disclosed subject matter and various ways in whichit may be practiced.

FIG. 1 shows an example process according to an implementation of thedisclosed subject matter.

FIG. 2 shows an example process according to an implementation of thedisclosed subject matter.

FIG. 3 shows an example gesture input according to an implementation ofthe disclosed subject matter.

FIG. 4 shows an example gesture input according to an implementation ofthe disclosed subject matter.

FIG. 5 shows an example gesture input according to an implementation ofthe disclosed subject matter.

FIG. 6 shows an example gesture input according to an implementation ofthe disclosed subject matter.

FIG. 7 shows an example gesture input according to an implementation ofthe disclosed subject matter.

FIG. 8 shows a computer according to an embodiment of the disclosedsubject matter.

FIG. 9 shows a network configuration according to an embodiment of thedisclosed subject matter.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Input of Chinese Pinyin (as well as other tonal language) characters andtone can be difficult on some devices, such as touch screen devices.There are 4 basic tones in Mandarin Chinese, and these can be denoted as1, 2, 3 and 4. Tone 1, or “Yin Ping,” is a flat or high level tone, tone2 (“Yang Ping,”) is a rising or high-rising tone, tone 3 (“Shang”) is afalling-rising or low tone, and tone 4 (“Qu”) is a falling orhigh-falling tone. Because the meaning of each character in Chinesevaries based on the tone given to the character, it may be important toindicate tone when typing. For example, mā (tone 1), má (tone 2),m{hacek over (a)} (tone 3), mà (tone 4), and ma (no tone, sometimesreferred to as tone 5) each have a different meaning based on the tone.Specifically, mā (tone 1) may mean “mother”, má (tone 2) may mean“hemp”, m{hacek over (a)} (tone 3) may mean “horse”, mà (tone 4) maymean “scold”, and ma (tone 5) is a question particle. With regard totyping of Chinese Pinyin characters and indicating tone, there is a lackof intuitive input techniques, and as a result, it can be very difficultfor a user to quickly and efficiently type on a device, such as a touchscreen device. For example, in order to type the word “

” or “mìng zì” (“name”) in Chinese Pinyin with tone, a user would haveto type “ming2 zi4” indicating ming with tone 2 and zi with tone 4.Therefore, it can be very cumbersome for a user to input each ChinesePinyin character and each corresponding tone when typing on a touchscreen device.

As another example, in some languages that use Latin alphabets, theremay be a distinction between homonyms, such as in the French language.The word “là” includes the letter “a” with a diacritic grave mark andmeans “there.” On the other hand, “la” without a diacritic mark means“the.” Both “là” and “la” are pronounced [la], which emphasizes theimportance of the difference in meaning conveyed by the use of diacriticmarks. Other examples include dakuten, handakuten, hiragana/katakana(eg.

and

) in Japanese, as well as tashkil and harakat in Arabic. Given the largenumber of possible combinations of diacritic marks and letters, it canbe difficult to input letters and corresponding diacritic marks quicklyand efficiently when typing on device, such as a touch screen device.

Implementations of the disclosed subject matter provide methods,systems, and products for efficiently inputting tone and/or a diacriticproperty when typing on a touch screen device. The method includesdisplaying a keypad for text input, the keypad including a plurality ofkeys. Input indicating a selection of a key from the plurality of keysmay be received. Next, a gesture input may be received that indicatesadditional information about the input desired by the user. For example,the gesture input may be associated with one gesture of a set ofgestures, each of which is semantically linked to at least one propertyincluding a phonological property and a diacritic property. As a result,a grapheme may be displayed based upon the selected key and the at leastone property semantically linked to the received gesture.

According to an implementation of the disclosed subject matter, a methodmay include displaying a keypad for text input, the keypad including aplurality of keys. Input may be received indicating a selection of a keyfrom the plurality of keys. A gesture input may be received, and thegesture input may be associated with one gesture of a set of gestures.Each gesture in the set may be semantically linked to a tone. The set ofgestures may include a substantially horizontal movement associated witha first tone, a movement both horizontal and vertical in a firstdirection associated with a second tone, a movement both horizontal andvertical in a second direction, then a movement both horizontal andvertical in a third direction associated with a third tone, and amovement both horizontal and vertical in a fourth direction associatedwith a fourth tone. Next, a grapheme may be displayed based upon theselected key and the tone associated with the received gesture.

As shown in FIG. 1, an implementation of the disclosed subject matterprovides a system including a processor configured to display a keypadfor text input, the keypad including a plurality of keys, at 101. At102, input indicating a selection of a key from the plurality of keysmay be received. A gesture input may be received and the gesture inputmay be associated with one gesture out of a set of gestures and eachgesture in the set may be semantically linked to at least one property,such as a phonological property and a diacritic property, at 103. Next,a grapheme may be displayed based upon the selected key and at least oneof the phonological property and the diacritic property semanticallylinked to the received gesture, at 104.

As shown in FIG. 2, an implementation of the disclosed subject matterprovides a system that includes a processor configured to display akeypad for text input, the keypad including a plurality of keys, at 201.At 202, input may be received indicating a selection of a key from theplurality of keys. At 203, a gesture input may be received, and thegesture input may be associated with one gesture out of a set ofgestures. Each gesture in the set may be semantically linked to a tone,and the set of gestures may include a substantially horizontal movementassociated with a first tone, a movement both horizontal and vertical ina first direction associated with a second tone, a movement bothhorizontal and vertical in a second direction, then a movement bothhorizontal and vertical in a third direction associated with a thirdtone, and a movement both horizontal and vertical in a fourth directionassociated with a fourth tone. For example, a substantially horizontalmovement to the right may be associated with a first tone, a movement upand to the right may be associated with a second tone, a movement downand to the right, then up and to the right may be associated with athird tone, and a movement down and to the right may be associated witha fourth tone. Next, a grapheme may be displayed based upon the selectedkey and the tone associated with the received gesture, at 204.

A keypad for text input may include a plurality of keys for text input.The keys for text input may include characters, letters, symbols,punctuation marks, numbers, and any other keys used for input of text.Input indicating selection of a key may include movement of a physicalobject, such as a stylus, a finger, or the like, proximate to thesurface of a touch screen device upon which a keypad is displayed. Inputindicating selection of a key may also include pressing of a key on atactile keyboard. Additionally, input indicating selection of a key mayinclude a gesture input associated with text input, such as a gestureinput associated with one or more characters, letters, symbols,punctuation marks, numbers, words, phrases, and any other input of text.As an example, input indicating selection of a key may be based on agesture input, followed by a second gesture input associated with aphonological property and/or diacritic property.

A gesture input may include movement of a physical object, such as astylus, a finger, or the like, proximate to the surface of a touchscreen device. For example, a gesture may be received by a user moving,swiping, dragging, sliding, drawing, and/or tapping his finger on thetouch screen of a touch screen device. Further, a gesture movement maybe continuous, such as a constant movement of a finger on a touch screenwithout any interruption or lifting of the finger. A gesture movementmay also include interruptions such as a pause, a stop, a tap, a changein direction, and any combination of movements and interruptions. Asanother example, a gesture may be mirrored horizontally, such as whenthere is no room near the edge of a touch screen. Additionally, agesture movement within a set of gestures may be differentiated fromother gestures in the set based on the speed of a movement. A gestureinput may also include the movement of a device relative to a startingposition. As another example, a gesture may be received by a usermoving, waving, and/or tapping his device relative to a startingposition in the air. For example, a user may input a gesture by holdinghis phone and moving the device from a starting point to an end point,such as by waving the device in the air.

Additionally, a user may define a gesture and/or a set of gestures to besemantically linked to a diacritic property and/or a phonologicalproperty. For example, a user may define the gesture of sliding to theright horizontally to denote the diaeresis umlaut ({umlaut over ( )}).As another example, a user may define the gesture of drawing a circle todenote tone 3 (Falling-Rising or Low Tone) in Mandarin Chinese. Othergestures and sets of gestures may be used and defined by a user, whereeach gesture is defined to be associated with a corresponding tone,diacritic, or the like. A defined gesture and/or set of gestures may bespecifically linked to a particular language, alphabet, application, andthe like, and vary from one language, alphabet, application, and thelike to another.

A phonological property as used herein may include a property associatedwith the systematic organization of sounds in a language. Further, aphonological property may be a sound function within a given language oracross languages to encode meaning, such as a sound, a tone, a phoneme,an accent, a stress, a syllable, onset and rhyme, an articulatorygesture, an articulatory feature, a mora, and any other sound functionwithin a language for conveying meaning. A phonological property may beone phonological property of a set of phonological properties. A set ofphonological properties may be a finite group of related properties thatencompass all options within a particular language. For example, thereare 4 basic tones in Mandarin Chinese, and these can be denoted as 1, 2,3, and 4. A set of phonological properties for the Mandarin Chineselanguage may include tone 1, tone 2, tone 3, and tone 4.

A diacritic property as used herein may include, a glyph, a mark, or thelike, added to a character to change the sound value of the character towhich it is added. For example, a diacritic property may be an accent, adot, a ring, a vertical line, a horizontal line, an overlay, a curve, acurl, a tilde, a comma, a titlo, an apostrophe, a bar, a colon, ahyphen, any other glyph added to a character in a language to indicatethe unique meaning associated with the character to which it is added,and any other glyph added to a character in a language to indicate thesound value of the character to which it is added. Additionally, adiacritic property may be a punctuation mark, a symbol, and a set ofsymbols associated with a language, an alphabet, a dialect, and thelike. A diacritic property may be one diacritic property of a set ofdiacritic properties. A set of diacritic properties may be a finitegroup of related properties that encompass all options within aparticular language. For example, the Spanish language includes the useof diacritic marks such as the acute accent mark (´), the diaeresisumlaut ({umlaut over ( )}), and the tilde (˜). A set of diacriticproperties for the Spanish language may include (´), ({umlaut over ()}), (

), and (˜).

A gesture input may be semantically linked to a phonological property.Specifically, a gesture input may be associated with a phonologicalproperty such that the gesture is intuitively indicative of the way aphonological property sounds. For example, as shown in FIGS. 3-6, anintuitive mapping of Mandarin Chinese tones to gestures may be to denotetone 1 (Flat or High Level Tone) as a substantially horizontal movementsuch as sliding to the right horizontally as shown in FIG. 3; tone 2(Rising or High-Rising Tone) as a movement both horizontal and verticalin a first direction such as as sliding to the upper right as shown inFIG. 4; tone 3 (Falling-Rising or Low Tone) as a movement bothhorizontal and vertical in a second direction, then a movement bothhorizontal and vertical in a third direction such as sliding to lowerright first, then upper right as shown in FIG. 5; and tone 4 (Falling orHigh-Falling Tone) as a movement both horizontal and vertical in afourth direction such as sliding to the lower right as shown in FIG. 6.Each of the first, second, third, and fourth directions may or may notbe the same direction. According to an implementation, the first tone ortone 1 may be Yin Ping; the second tone or tone 2 may be Yang Ping; thethird tone or tone 3 may be Shang; and the fourth tone or tone 4 may beQu. Thus, in this example, the general shape of the gesture matches oris similar to the “shape” traditionally associated with thecorresponding tone. Other gestures and sets of gestures may be used,where each gesture is similarly associated with the corresponding tone,diacritic, or the like.

For example, gestures on a touch screen device may be used to indicatetone. A user may select a key representing a letter and swipe his fingerin a specific direction to indicate a tone associated with the letter.For example, the Pinyin input with tone for “good bye” in English is“zai4 jian4” representing “zai” with tone 4 and “jian” with tone 4.Rather than having to type “zai4 jian4”, a user may input the fullPinyin and a gesture to indicate tone. The user may input “zai” followedby a swipe in the lower right direction to indicate tone 4. As a result,“zài” or “

” may be displayed. Next, the user may input “jian” followed by a swipein the lower right direction to indicate tone 4. As a result, “jiàn” or“

” may be displayed. The gesture may be made immediately following, or asa part of, an earlier gesture or other input that is used to select aletter. Continuing the example, where a user is using a touch-sensitivescreen displaying a keyboard to enter the letters “zai,” the first swipeto the lower right may be made after the user presses the screen toselect “i”, without the user lifting his finger from the screen. Moregenerally, gestures as disclosed herein may be made as part of,immediately following or preceding, or entirely separate from a gestureor other input that is provided to select a letter, word, or other item.

In implementations of the disclosed subject matter, a gesture input maybe semantically linked to a diacritic property. In particular, a gestureinput may be associated with a phonological property such that thegesture is intuitively indicative of the way a diacritic property looks.As an example, the gesture for each of a set of diacritic marks mayinclude a gesture portion that matches the shape of the diacritic mark.For example, an intuitive mapping of Spanish language diacritic marksmay be to denote each diacritic mark corresponding to a gesture movementwhich imitates the shape of the diacritic mark. As an example, anintuitive mapping of Spanish language diacritic marks may be to denotethe acute accent mark (´) as sliding to the upper right; the diaeresisumlaut ({umlaut over ( )}) as two consecutive taps; and the tilde (˜) ascontinuously sliding to the upper right, then to the lower right, andthen to the upper right as shown in FIG. 7.

For example, a user may wish to type the Spanish words “FelizCumpleaños” or “Happy Birthday” in English. A user may select keys forinputting f-e-l-i-z followed by c-u-m-p-l-e-a-n, followed by a gesture,such as sliding to the upper right, then to the lower right, and then tothe upper right, as shown in FIG. 7. As a result, the letter “ñ” may bedisplayed. The user may finish by selecting keys for inputting o-s.

In general, a grapheme is the smallest semantically distinguishing unitin a written language, analogous to the phonemes of spoken languages. Agrapheme may or may not carry meaning by itself, and may or may notcorrespond to a single phoneme. A grapheme may be a character, a letter,a word, a symbol, a syllable, a punctuation mark, a numeral, a pinyin,and any other unit or symbol of a written language. For example, agrapheme may be any one of “ming zì,” “míng,” “m,” “zì,” “

,” or “z.” Additionally, a grapheme may be a modified version of acharacter associated with a selected key. For example, a user may selectkeys for inputting “n” followed by a gesture, such as sliding to theupper right, then to the lower right, and then to the upper right, asshown in FIG. 7. As a result, a modified version of the selected key“n”, in particular, the character “ñ” may be displayed. A grapheme maybe a modified version of a word associated with the selected key or aplurality of selected keys. As an example, a user may select keys forinputting the Spanish word for the verb “tener” followed by a gesture toindicate a conjugation of the verb. A user may slide upward to indicatethe “we” subject pronoun. As a result, a modified version of “tener”, inparticular, “tenemos” may be displayed.

Upon receiving selection of a key and a gesture input, a grapheme may bedisplayed based on the selected key and the received gesture. Accordingto an implementation, a plurality of candidate graphemes may bedisplayed based on the selected key and the received gesture. From amongthe plurality of candidate graphemes displayed, a best-guess option maybe selected and displayed automatically based on whether a usercontinues inputting text and/or gestures. Additionally, the user mayselect a grapheme from among the plurality of candidate graphemes. Forexample, some Input Method Editors (IMEs) that are used to type inChinese or other languages may have a “buffer” that displays a pluralityof candidate graphemes based on the IME's prediction of what a user istrying to input based on input and/or gestures received. In this case, abest-guess option may be inserted automatically if the user continuestyping as there are often multiple possible candidate graphemes for agiven input and/or gesture, such as a Chinese Pinyin (sound+tone) entry.

In an implementation, the remaining characters in a grapheme and/or partof a grapheme may be predicted. Such a prediction may assign aprobability distribution to graphemes, such as characters, in a languageor an alphabet corresponding to the probability of each character beingnext in the input stream. The prediction feature may be based on knowncombinations of a particular character and at least one of aphonological and a diacritic property within a given language. Forexample, in order to type the word “

” or “míng zì” or “name” in Chinese Pinyin with tone, previously a userwould have to type “ming2 zi4” indicating ming with tone 2 and zi withtone 4. According to an implementation, a user wishing to type “míng zì”may type “m” followed by a swipe in the upper right direction toindicate tone 2 and then type “z” followed by a swipe in the lower rightdirection to indicate tone 4. As a result, “m2 z4” may be displayed.Furthermore, the prediction feature may include a database of allpossible Chinese pinyin from which it may be determined that “m” withtone 2 followed by “z” with tone 4 is limited to a set number of phrasesthat include a first pinyin beginning with the letter “m” spoken withtone 2 followed by a second pinyin beginning with the letter “z” spokenwith tone 4. As a result, the system may be able to predict that theuser is most likely intending to type “

” or “míng zì”. As a result, the word “

” or “míng zì” may be displayed on the screen. The predictive featuremay allow a user to input only a consonant and tone, thereby greatlyreducing the time and effort required to type a pinyin with tone.

The prediction feature may also take into account the context of agrapheme based on other graphemes near or adjacent to the grapheme. Forexample, selection of the keys f-e-l-i-z, space, c-u-m-p-l-e-a-n may bereceived. Next, a gesture input, as shown in FIG. 7 may be received suchas sliding to the upper right, then to the lower right, and then to theupper right, indicating a tilde (˜) associated with the last receivedletter “n,” as a result, ñ may be displayed. The prediction feature maydetermine that a first word “feliz” followed by a second word beginningwith “cumplean” is most likely the phrase “feliz cumpleaños.” As aresult, the remaining characters in the grapheme may be predicted, forexample, the letters o-s.

As another example, a user may wish to input “zài jiàn.” One option maybe that the user simply inputs a consonant plus a swipe for tone and thegrapheme may be predicted. For example, “z4 j4” may be inputted on atouch screen by selecting the “z” key followed by a swipe in the lowerright direction to indicate tone 4 and selecting the “j” key followed bya swipe in the lower right direction to indicate tone 4. Based on theinput of “z” and the gesture for tone 4 following by input of “j” andthe gesture for tone 4, the remaining characters in the grapheme may bepredicted, and it may be determined that the user is intending to type“zài jiàn.” As a result, “zài jiàn”, “z4 j4”, or “

” may be displayed. Additionally, selection of the “z” key followed by aswipe in the lower right direction to indicate tone 4 may be input.Based on the input of “z” and the gesture for tone 4, it may bepredicted that the user is intending to type “zài.” This prediction maybe based on information indicating that there are a set number ofChinese pinyin graphemes that begin with the letter z and have tone 4.Further, the remaining part of the grapheme may be predicted, forexample, “jiàn.” This prediction may be based on information that “zài”with tone 4 is typically followed by “jiàn.”

As discussed above, selection of a key and a gesture input may bereceived on a mobile device. A mobile device may include a smartphone, atablet, a wearable computer, a phone, a laptop, a wireless device, andany other device capable of receiving a selection of a key and a gestureinput.

In an implementation, the communication between a device and a graphemeprovider may be across one or more bridges between the interfaces. Forexample, the communications between the device and the grapheme providermay be managed or assisted by a third device, such as, a coordinatingdevice, a local coordinator, a remote server, etc. In such cases, thethird device may, for example, provide the selected key and gestureinput received to the grapheme provider, in which case, the graphemeprovider may provide the grapheme to be displayed at the device.Alternatively, the third device may receive a selected key and a gestureinput from the device, and provide the selected key and gesture input toa prediction feature provider. The prediction feature provider maypredict the remaining characters in a grapheme and/or part of agrapheme. Accordingly, the prediction feature provider may provide theremaining characters in a grapheme and/or part of a grapheme to thedevice. Furthermore, more than one intermediate device may beimplemented to facilitate communication between devices, a graphemeprovider, and prediction feature provider.

Embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter may be implementedin and used with a variety of component and network architectures. FIG.8 is an example computer 20 suitable for implementing embodiments of thepresently disclosed subject matter. The computer 20 includes a bus 21which interconnects major components of the computer 20, such as acentral processor 24, a memory 27 (typically RAM, but which may alsoinclude ROM, flash RAM, or the like), an input/output controller 28, auser display 22, such as a display screen via a display adapter, a userinput interface 26, which may include one or more controllers andassociated user input devices such as a keyboard, mouse, and the like,and may be closely coupled to the I/O controller 28, fixed storage 23,such as a hard drive, flash storage, Fibre Channel network, SAN device,SCSI device, and the like, and a removable media component 25 operativeto control and receive an optical disk, flash drive, and the like.

The bus 21 allows data communication between the central processor 24and the memory 27, which may include read-only memory (ROM) or flashmemory (neither shown), and random access memory (RAM) (not shown), aspreviously noted. The RAM is generally the main memory into which theoperating system and application programs are loaded. The ROM or flashmemory can contain, among other code, the Basic Input-Output system(BIOS) which controls basic hardware operation such as the interactionwith peripheral components. Applications resident with the computer 20are generally stored on and accessed via a computer readable medium,such as a hard disk drive (e.g., fixed storage 23), an optical drive,floppy disk, or other storage medium 25.

The fixed storage 23 may be integral with the computer 20 or may beseparate and accessed through other interfaces. A network interface 29may provide a direct connection to a remote server via a telephone link,to the Internet via an internet service provider (ISP), or a directconnection to a remote server via a direct network link to the Internetvia a POP (point of presence) or other technique. The network interface29 may provide such connection using wireless techniques, includingdigital cellular telephone connection, Cellular Digital Packet Data(CDPD) connection, digital satellite data connection or the like. Forexample, the network interface 29 may allow the computer to communicatewith other computers via one or more local, wide-area, or othernetworks, as shown in FIG. 9.

Many other devices or components (not shown) may be connected in asimilar manner (e.g., document scanners, digital cameras and so on).Conversely, all of the components shown in FIG. 8 need not be present topractice the present disclosure. The components can be interconnected indifferent ways from that shown. The operation of a computer such as thatshown in FIG. 8 is readily known in the art and is not discussed indetail in this application. Code to implement the present disclosure canbe stored in computer-readable storage media such as one or more of thememory 27, fixed storage 23, removable media 25, or on a remote storagelocation.

FIG. 9 shows an example network arrangement according to an embodimentof the disclosed subject matter. One or more clients 10, 11, such aslocal computers, smart phones, tablet computing devices, and the likemay connect to other devices via one or more networks 7. The network maybe a local network, wide-area network, the Internet, or any othersuitable communication network or networks, and may be implemented onany suitable platform including wired and/or wireless networks. Theclients may communicate with one or more grapheme providers 12,prediction feature providers 14, servers 13 and/or databases 15. Thedevices may be directly accessible by the clients 10, 11, or one or moreother devices may provide intermediary access such as where a server 13provides access to resources stored in a database 15. The clients 10, 11also may access remote platforms 17 or services provided by remoteplatforms 17 such as cloud computing arrangements and services. Theremote platform 17 may include one or more grapheme providers 12,prediction feature providers 14, servers 13 and/or databases 15.

More generally, various embodiments of the presently disclosed subjectmatter may include or be embodied in the form of computer-implementedprocesses and apparatuses for practicing those processes. Embodimentsalso may be embodied in the form of a computer program product havingcomputer program code containing instructions embodied in non-transitoryand/or tangible media, such as floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, hard drives,USB (universal serial bus) drives, or any other machine readable storagemedium, wherein, when the computer program code is loaded into andexecuted by a computer, the computer becomes an apparatus for practicingembodiments of the disclosed subject matter. Embodiments also may beembodied in the form of computer program code, for example, whetherstored in a storage medium, loaded into and/or executed by a computer,or transmitted over some transmission medium, such as over electricalwiring or cabling, through fiber optics, or via electromagneticradiation, wherein when the computer program code is loaded into andexecuted by a computer, the computer becomes an apparatus for practicingembodiments of the disclosed subject matter. When implemented on ageneral-purpose microprocessor, the computer program code segmentsconfigure the microprocessor to create specific logic circuits. In someconfigurations, a set of computer-readable instructions stored on acomputer-readable storage medium may be implemented by a general-purposeprocessor, which may transform the general-purpose processor or a devicecontaining the general-purpose processor into a special-purpose deviceconfigured to implement or carry out the instructions. Embodiments maybe implemented using hardware that may include a processor, such as ageneral purpose microprocessor and/or an Application Specific IntegratedCircuit (ASIC) that embodies all or part of the techniques according toembodiments of the disclosed subject matter in hardware and/or firmware.The processor may be coupled to memory, such as RAM, ROM, flash memory,a hard disk or any other device capable of storing electronicinformation. The memory may store instructions adapted to be executed bythe processor to perform the techniques according to embodiments of thedisclosed subject matter.

The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has beendescribed with reference to specific embodiments. However, theillustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit embodiments of the disclosed subject matter to the precise formsdisclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in view of theabove teachings. For example, while certain languages, scripts, phrases,words, and characters were chosen to illustrate the workings of thepresent disclosure, the teachings of the present disclosure are not solimited, and may apply to any appropriate language, script, and so on.The embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain theprinciples of embodiments of the disclosed subject matter and theirpractical applications, to thereby enable others skilled in the art toutilize those embodiments as well as various embodiments with variousmodifications as may be suited to the particular use contemplated.

1. A method comprising: displaying a keypad for text input, the keypadincluding a plurality of keys, receiving input indicating a selection ofa key from the plurality of keys, receiving a gesture input, wherein thegesture input is associated with one gesture of a set of gestures, eachgesture in the set being semantically linked to at least one propertyselected from: a phonological property and a diacritic property, anddisplaying a grapheme based upon the selected key and the at least oneproperty semantically linked to the received gesture.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the phonological property is one phonological propertyof a set of phonological properties.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinthe diacritic property is one diacritic property of a set of diacriticproperties.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising predicting acharacter that is part of the grapheme.
 5. The method of claim 1,further comprising predicting the remaining characters in the grapheme.6. The method of claim 1, wherein the grapheme includes at least oneselected from the group consisting of: a character, a letter, a word, asymbol, a syllable, a punctuation mark, a numeral, and a pinyin.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the grapheme is a modified version of acharacter associated with the selected key.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the grapheme is a modified version of a word associated with theselected key.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the phonologicalproperty is at least one selected from the group consisting of: a sound,a tone, a phoneme, an accent, a stress, and any other sound functionwithin a language encoding meaning.
 10. The method of claim 1, whereinthe diacritic property is at least one selected from the groupconsisting of: an accent, a dot, a ring, a vertical line, a horizontalline, an overlay, a curve, a curl, a tilde, a comma, a titlo, anapostrophe, a bar, a colon, a hyphen, any other glyph added to acharacter in a language to indicate the unique meaning associated withthe character to which it is added, and any other glyph added to acharacter in a language to indicate the sound value of the character towhich it is added.
 11. A method comprising: displaying a keypad for textinput, the keypad including a plurality of keys, receiving inputindicating a selection of a key from the plurality of keys, receiving agesture input, wherein the gesture input is associated with one gestureof a set of gestures, each gesture in the set being semantically linkedto a tone, and wherein the set of gestures comprises: a substantiallyhorizontal movement associated with a first tone, a movement bothhorizontal and vertical in a first direction associated with a secondtone, a movement both horizontal and vertical in a second direction,then a movement both horizontal and vertical in a third directionassociated with a third tone, and a movement both horizontal andvertical in a fourth direction associated with a fourth tone, anddisplaying a grapheme based upon the selected key and the toneassociated with the received gesture.
 12. The method of claim 11,further comprising predicting a character that is part of the grapheme.13. The method of claim 11, further comprising predicting the remainingcharacters in the grapheme.
 14. The method of claim 11, wherein thegrapheme is at least one selected from the group consisting of: acharacter, a letter, a word, a symbol, a syllable, a punctuation mark, anumeral, and a pinyin.
 15. The method of claim 11, wherein the graphemeis a modified version of a character associated with the selected key.16. The method of claim 11, wherein the grapheme is a modified versionof a word associated with the selected key.
 17. The method of claim 11,wherein the first tone is Yin Ping, the second tone is Yang Ping, thethird tone is Shang, and the fourth tone is Qu.
 18. The method of claim11, wherein the substantially horizontal movement associated with afirst tone is a substantially horizontal movement to the right; themovement both horizontal and vertical in a first direction associatedwith a second tone is a movement up and to the right; the movement bothhorizontal and vertical in a second direction, then a movement bothhorizontal and vertical in a third direction associated with a thirdtone is a movement down and to the right, then up and to the right, andthe movement both horizontal and vertical in a fourth directionassociated with a fourth tone is a movement down and to the right.
 19. Asystem comprising: a processor configured to: display a keypad for textinput, the keypad including a plurality of keys, receive inputindicating a selection of a key from the plurality of keys, receive agesture input, wherein the gesture input is associated with one gestureout of a set of gestures, each gesture in the set being semanticallylinked to at least one property selected from: a phonological propertyand a diacritic property, and display a grapheme based upon the selectedkey and at least one of the phonological property and the diacriticproperty semantically linked to the received gesture.
 20. The system ofclaim 19, wherein the phonological property is one phonological propertyof a set of phonological properties.
 21. The system of claim 19, whereinthe diacritic property is one diacritic property of a set of diacriticproperties.
 22. The system of claim 19, further comprising predicting acharacter that is part of the grapheme.
 23. The system of claim 19,further comprising predicting the remaining characters in the grapheme.24. The system of claim 19, wherein the grapheme includes at least oneselected from the group consisting of: a character, a letter, a word, asymbol, a syllable, a punctuation mark, a numeral, a pinyin, and anyother unit of a written language.
 25. The system of claim 19, whereinthe grapheme is a modified version of a character associated with theselected key.
 26. The system of claim 19, wherein the grapheme is amodified version of a word associated with the selected key.
 27. Thesystem of claim 19, wherein the phonological property is at least oneselected from the group consisting of: a sound, a tone, a phoneme, anaccent, a stress, and any other sound function within a languageencoding meaning.
 28. The system of claim 19, wherein the diacriticproperty is at least one selected from the group consisting of: anaccent, a dot, a ring, a vertical line, a horizontal line, an overlay, acurve, a curl, a tilde, a comma, a titlo, an apostrophe, a bar, a colon,a hyphen, and any other glyph added to a character in a language toindicate the sound value of the character to which it is added.
 29. Asystem comprising: a processor configured to: display a keypad for textinput, the keypad including a plurality of keys, receive inputindicating a selection of a key from the plurality of keys, receive agesture input, wherein the gesture input is associated with one gestureout of a set of gestures, each gesture in the set being semanticallylinked to a tone, and wherein the set of gestures includes: asubstantially horizontal movement associated with a first tone, amovement both horizontal and vertical in a first direction associatedwith a second tone, a movement both horizontal and vertical in a seconddirection, then a movement both horizontal and vertical in a thirddirection associated with a third tone, and a movement both horizontaland vertical in a fourth direction associated with a fourth tone, anddisplay a grapheme based upon the selected key and the tone associatedwith the received gesture.
 30. The system of claim 29, furthercomprising predicting a character that is part of the grapheme.
 31. Thesystem of claim 29, further comprising predicting the remainingcharacters in the grapheme.
 32. The system of claim 29, wherein thegrapheme includes at least one selected from the group consisting of: acharacter, a letter, a word, a symbol, a syllable, a punctuation mark, anumeral, a pinyin, and any other unit of a written language.
 33. Thesystem of claim 29, wherein the grapheme is a modified version of acharacter associated with the selected key.
 34. The system of claim 29,wherein the grapheme is a modified version of a word associated with theselected key.
 35. The system of claim 29, wherein the first tone is YinPing, the second tone is Yang Ping, the third tone is Shang, and thefourth tone is Qu.
 36. The system of claim 29, wherein the substantiallyhorizontal movement associated with a first tone is a substantiallyhorizontal movement to the right; the movement both horizontal andvertical in a first direction associated with a second tone is amovement up and to the right; the movement both horizontal and verticalin a second direction, then a movement both horizontal and vertical in athird direction associated with a third tone is a movement down and tothe right, then up and to the right, and the movement both horizontaland vertical in a fourth direction associated with a fourth tone is amovement down and to the right.